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Captains Journey August 2017 Sudharma

August 15th, 2017, 09:44

Dear all best friends and family of CVF,

As usual, just before I set out on a long journey, my main page and FTP-client acts up with technical issues. The past week, I have been working really hard on my main website as well - uploading changes and updates have been a really big pain in the "somewhere". Like last time, a week before I was due to fly to SE Asia, I got problems within the same category. This time, FileZilla and Cyberduck just didn't want to upload only the changes made to the main page, but the whole 4.6 Gigabytes of it. Even after just changing a comma or a single letter, the update required me to upload EVERYTHING (which is an all-day/all-night task!).

Not that I expect many people are too interested in my travels, but I know of at least one supporter who loves it.

OH, the agony of running websites!

Instead, I have created this travel diary. I should hopefully be able to at least keep this on updates as I travel around ASEAN.

Right now, its 09:42 in the morning and I have made it as far as to Værnes Airport Trondheim - my first leg goes to Oslo, and then onwards to Stockholm where TG961 will be waiting for me. Today, the B777-300ER they have sent to pick me up is the HS-TKX with the royally bestowed name SUDHARMA.

Hopefuly, I'll make the flight because I have only 20 minutes on the ground at Stockholm between flights!

Marvellous - this 'diary thread' I mean - not your other issues! In my 'geek-gull' mode, I was already delighting in looking up which actual aircraft were flying your routes today. Umm... you'll have to scamper in ARN. The last time I was there it seemed to have grown enormously from my last visit before that.
Safe and happy travels - I couldn't be more excited than if I was actually travelling myself.

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Dear Seagull and Azimut - thank you so much for wanting to follow my travels! Yes, it's indeed a genius way to stay in touch - I had hoped to do so through my bLOG but as normal, something happens with the software just as I get ready to cast off on a journey.

I've made it through Thailand so far - it's been nothing but absolutely amazing except from the lack of time and connectivity. I have been to Bangkok, my dearly beloved Kanchanaburi, I've been to the giant Buddha statue at War Muang in And Thong, I've been to a decommissioned Boeing 747 aircraft located not far from Khorat and I have been to a relatively remote and rural town located between Khorat and Khon Kaen, It's been nothing but absolutely amazing for me - we always tend to say that our current journey is the best one, and I can truly confirm that this is true this time as well.

Right now, I'm at Suwarnabhumi airport - officially departed from Thailand - seated in my private First Class lounge eating shrimp wonton's and a heavenly forest mushroom soup with "real" mushrooms, and my favorite drink: Lemongrass ice tea! It's only 05:30 in the morning and my first flight of the day is on an A380 of Thai Airways in First Class to Hong Kong. I'm so excited I can barely contain myself.

This will be the very first time for me on an A380. I have never been on board one as of yet.

Fun fact: spoke to a friend of mine last night - a Captain with Singapore Airlines: did you know that there are now more B787 in regular passenger service than the B747 jumbo jet? It's hard to believe that the 747 is about to disappear completely from the market with the biggest airlines of the world. I guess if you want to fly (one more time) with the B747, time is now of the essence!

I will try to check in again some time soon, and my most sincere apologies if I don't get to see al the new wonderful posts you all have made in my absence. I can't wait to get good time and review all that's been going on here and with you all. I have to close pretty quickly right now as I will have to go and get my complimentary pre-flight Thai massage - wouldn't want my legs to cramp up there in the skies!

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Thank you so much for your comment and for checking in on me: it makes a world of difference. Without you, I most probably would not have been reporting back here.

My stay in Hong kong is over and I have managed to be transported back to an almost abandoned and deserted Hong Kong International Airport.

So much to tell you, it's really been an amazing visit.

The end of my stay here in Hong Kong this time ended like the fireworks at the end of New Years Eve. With a gigantic melt down!

As I woke this morning, torrential rains hammered my hotel window and the glass breathed like a monster's chest. Throughout the morning, the winds and the rains picked up and created a scene I had never, ever in my life experienced. I just couldn't stay in the room look through a glass - I had to go out and feel and experience this. So I did. It was probably the .... ehhh... for the lack of a better word, the most powerful thing I had ever experienced in my whole entire life - and I have been through some pretty strong weather in the past - including typhoons and a massive Roaring 40's violent storm.

The sounds, the winds and the torrential rains that just kept on coming, and coming, and coming - was .... you know, I have no words that can properly describe what I experienced today.

According to the news, this was a highest possible category tropical storm, a so-called T10, and as far as I gathered from Chinese news, the maximum sustained wind speed in Hong Kong was at close to 220 km/hour. THAT IS MASSIVE!

The scene down by the street level and up in the higher floors of the tallest buildings were probably two extremely different scenes I kept on thinking throughout my walk around town this morning.

I think what I will remember the most from this morning, is the deafening sound created by all that air and all the wind trying to fit between narrow passages, buildings and pathways.

Anyway, all that aside. I have made it to the airport and I have never seen such a large airport with hardly any people inside - it's all deserted and flights are cancelled-en-mass.

My flight, TG601 is delayed with nearly 6 hours if everything now goes as planned. I had to change my plans in Bangkok for today, and cancel some appointments, but I'm going o be fine here in the Royal First Class Lounge of Thai Airways. There is lots of a-la-carte food to choose from, a lot of choices of beverages and great Internet connectivity. I'll survive for sure!

Hope all is well at your end of the screen too!

PS: Thank you for following my random Instagram posts as well at captainsvoyage

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Hi Jan-Olav
Reading that you have had a wonderful stay in Hong Kong, even though you ended up in the middle of a typhoon
Sounds like you've had an incredible weather experience when you walked in the streets.
I wish you a safe and good trip back to Thailand.

Dearest Captain,
Yes, you'll have gathered that I manage to co-exist in your time zone when you're away! It's practically like being on night watch! I was so VERY glad to have that contact during the night my-time.

I trusted you to take a safe line between every care possible and yet experiencing the forces of nature. I'd have done the same. But I'm certainly happy to hear you have now reached the airport, and, needless to say, your frequent flyer status is perfect for the long wait (Do Thai also offer massage in HKG? )

I was thinking that the image that comes to mind when hearing of hurricanes or typhoons generally features beach locations with palm trees bent over at huge angles. So it must have been something surreal and extraordinarily powerful to experience the extreme forces of nature in the man-made context of down-town Hong Kong.

Last edited by Seagull; August 23rd, 2017, 10:49.
Reason: ...correcting the inevitable typo!

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I tried really hard to stay online throughout my trip, and I did have relatively good Internet connection... but there just wasn't any time left over. It was supposed to be a holiday but it was packed tight like the latest version of a Lufthansa timetable.

So, about a week ago, I finally made it home just in time to do one night watch at work, and then head straight into a one week sick leave. For the entire past week, I feel I have been close to death than being alive... freezing, and sweating every other hour.... high fever and completely stuffed nose. With other words, as you guessed: bedridden with a flue.

Finally, this is the first day out of bed for more than one hour.... it's been a nightmare, I noticed the beautiful weather outside and couldn't even go out!

I'm a whole lot better now, and will return to work tomorrow... day shift for a week on K followed by some days on the G.

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Oh dear ...no wonder that after the earlier part of your trip even I became unable to figure out where you were, or even what week it was!!!!!
You need to factor in a bit more REST and RELAXATION into your schedule during those 'holiday periods'

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